City’s refund gets reduced

Sales tax revenue for the City of Clarendon fell more than 50 percent when State Comptroller Susan Combs made her April allocations last Friday, but the drop is due to accounting errors by both the city and the state and not a reflection of the local economy.

City Hall received $11,011.40 for the month, which is a drop of 50.35 percent compared to the $22,181.70 during the same period in 2011.

But city officials say the comptroller’s office actually withheld $12,853 from this month’s payment to the city because of an overpayment to the city by the state earlier this year. The city’s annual audit revealed an overpayment to the state in sales taxes on sanitation services, but state officials said Tuesday that the comptroller’s office had refunded too much money to the city when it returned about $54,000 earlier this year.

Clarendon’s actual sales tax revenue for this period should have been $23,864, which would have been an increase of about 7.6 percent over the same time last year.

With the state’s deduction of funds, however, Clarendon’s year-to-date sales tax collections dropped 11.06 percent to $97,200.28.

Also in Donley County, Hedley’s sales tax revenue for the month was also down 20.61 percent to $321.66, bringing that city down 25.22 percent for the year at $1,651.25. Howardwick, which increased its sales tax rate in October, posted increased collections of 27.8 percent at $1,274.35 for the month and was up 17.43 percent on the year at $5,016.22.

Statewide, Combs announced that sales tax revenue in March was $1.87 billion, up 16.9 percent compared to March 2011.

“The latest sales tax revenue numbers mark a continuation of recent trends we have seen in sales tax receipts,” Combs said. “Strong collections continued in oil and gas-related sectors, while growth in revenue from the retail sector and restaurants also accelerated.”

Combs will send April local sales tax allocations totaling $488.7 million to cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts, up 17 percent compared to April 2011.

The sales tax figures represent monthly sales made in February and reported to the comptroller’s office in March.